Dodgers: Lowe pitched one of his better games of the season, allowing one run over six innings, but the bullpen squandered a four-run lead and cost him a deserved victory. His three walks swelled his pitch count and contributed to an early departure after having thrown two complete games in his previous three starts.

Nationals: Bacsik is making a case to the Nationals, the same team that cut him last spring, to keep him around in 2007. After allowing no runs in his first start, the lefty battled for a win against Cincinnati on Thursday, going 7 2/3 frames while giving up three runs on seven hits. It was his first win the Majors since 2004.

COMMENTS:

Who are these guys? Yesterday's 10-run outburst marked the fourth time this year that the usually moribund offense opened up for double-digit runs. To be fair, all four 10-run games have come against last-place teams (Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Washington), with the exception of Pittsburgh, who is five games under .500. The point is, these are games we're supposed to win, and having Brad Penny on the mound, Juan Pierre with a career day, and Luis Gonzalez with a home run definitely help. Now if we can just get Jeff Kent to stop swinging at the first pitch, we might surpass 10 runs.

18,483 fans turned out to RFK last night to see the Dodgers, which marks the lowest attendance this year to see the Dodgers (home and away), save the series with the Florida Marlins. When it looks empty and cavernous on the highlight reels, you can understand why. Let's hope they can get better crowds next year when they open up their new Nationals Ballpark, which does look sweet. In the meantime, props to the Nats for their tagline "Pledge Your Allegiance," though it is awful difficult to do so when your team is 13 games out in May. It might help their attendance if their promotional schedule didn't reek of lameness, with bobbleheads of past US Presidents (including "Tom" Jefferson, since apparently we are on an informal basis) rather than Nationals players. Matt Chico and Nook Logan must be pretty bummed out.